BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 25, 2018--
MakerBot, the industry leader in 3D printing for education, has just
earned the ISTE
Seal of Alignment for the recently launched MakerBot Certification™
program for educators. The first of its kind, the program addresses two
important hurdles to implementing 3D printers in STEM classrooms. First
the program coaches educators to become 3D printing experts, then it
trains them to create their own custom 3D printing curriculum.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the
leading accreditation body that defines standards for how to use
technology in classrooms. Their standards and Seal of Alignment are
important tools for teachers and administrators nationwide to evaluate
the quality of resources like professional development or curriculum.
After an independent review, the MakerBot Certification program received
ISTE’s Seal of Alignment, meeting their standards
for educators and making it easier for individuals and entire
districts to add and support 3D printing in their STEM classrooms.

MakerBot
will exhibit its solutions for educators, including the MakerBot
Certification program and lesson plans from Thingiverse
Education™, at this year’s ISTE conference beginning June 24th in
Chicago. Renowned educational technologist Kathy Schrock, one of the
program’s key collaborators and first graduates, elaborates, “[o]nce I
finished the MakerBot Curriculum certification, I was confident how best
to use 3D printing in the classroom to support instruction, as well as
how to manage the design and print process for student success.”

With its 3D printers in over 7,000 schools, MakerBot offers the most
robust collection of resources for educators and was recently named the Best
3D Printer for Schools by All3DP.com. MakerBot CEO Nadav Goshen
adds, “This ecosystem, this complete solution for educators, hasn’t
always existed. We built it over the course of years, placing printers
in schools and learning from educators what they still need and what
makes the biggest impact on student learning outcomes.”

Through this focus on listening to and supporting educators, MakerBot
has made substantial progress in how well 3D printers meet teachers’
instructional goals. A survey of over 2,000 MakerBot Educators,
conducted over the past three years, asked teachers to rate their
success using MakerBot 3D printers for general K-12 and CAD instruction.
In both categories, the percentage of teachers who reported the printers
met their classroom needs doubled over two years.

“This data shows that MakerBot isn’t just growing its user base in
schools,” Goshen continued. “We’re measurably improving teachers’
experiences using 3D printing. Much of this impressive teacher
satisfaction is thanks to the effort we’ve put into solving real
classroom problems—like the availability of 3D printing curriculum with
Thingiverse Education, clear best practices with the MakerBot Educators
Guidebook, and now training with the new MakerBot Certification program.”

The same survey asked teachers to gauge their interest in cloud-based 3D
printing, and 58% reported an immediate interest in using a cloud-based
workflow. This clear preference towards a simple, flexible workflow is
what drove the development of the industry’s first seamless cloud-based
platform, My MakerBot™. It combines 3D print preparation with printer
management and connects directly to Tinkercad® software for easy 3D
design and printing—compatible with Chromebook® computers or any
browser-based device. By working directly with the world’s largest
community of 3D printing educators, MakerBot is able to predict and
identify key educator values and challenges, then address them with
deeply impactful solutions.

Collectively, these and other insights confirm that the market for 3D
printing in education has matured significantly in the past several
years; educators are finding their footing with the technology, and
MakerBot is the leading provider for 3D printing education solutions
that go beyond just hardware and software.

MakerBot, a subsidiary of Stratasys Ltd. (Nasdaq: SSYS), is a global
leader in the 3D printing industry, offers reliable and easy-to-use 3D
printing, and runs Thingiverse, the world’s largest 3D printing file
library and community. We believe there's an innovator in everyone, so
we make the 3D printing tools that make your ideas matter. Discover
innovation with MakerBot 3D printing.